1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a video recorder having a tuner which can be tuned to each time one station of a plurality of stations and, after it has been tuned to a station, supplies a received television program signal, having a recording and playback device for recording a received television program signal supplied by the tuner and for reproducing a recorded television program signal, and having a connector which can be connected to the tuner for applying to said connector the received television program signal supplied by the tuner, to which connector a cable can be connected, which cable can also be connected to a connector of a television receiver, said television receiver also having a tuner which can be tuned to each time one station of a plurality of stations and, after it has been tuned to a station, supplies a received television program signal, which is reproduced by the television receiver in a first reproduction mode thereof, the cable enabling signals to be transferred away from the video recorder and to the video recorder, and having a mode selection device by means of which the video recorder can be set to a "recording" mode, in which a received television program signal supplied by the tuner is recorded, to a "playback" mode, in which a recorded television program signal is reproduced, and to further modes of operation, and having a control signal generator, which generates and supplies a playback control signal when the video recorder is in the "playback" mode, which playback control signal together with a television program signal reproduced in the "playback" mode in the video recorder can be applied to the connector of the video recorder, from which the playback control signal can be applied to a detection device of the television receiver via the cable and the connector of the television receiver, said detection device being adapted to detect the playback control signal, in said television receiver, a second reproduction mode can be started upon detection of the playback control signal to reproduce a television program signal transferred to the television receiver via the cable.
2. Description of the Related Art
Such a video recorder is generally known in a multitude of versions. For example, such a video recorder manufactured by the Applicant has been marketed under the type number VR 813. Such a video recorder can form a video system comprising a television receiver and this video recorder; the television receiver and video recorder may be constructed as separate units or may be combined to form a single unit. In such a video system, the tuner of the television receiver and the tuner of the video recorder are frequently tuned to different stations transmitting different television programs, i.e., different television program signals, so that in the more frequently used first reproduction mode of the television receiver, which is intended for displaying the television program signal on the display screen of the television receiver, the television program signal supplied by the tuner of the television receiver is displayed on the display screen of this receiver, while, at the same time, the television program signal supplied by the tuner of the video recorder can be recorded by means of the video recorder when the "recording mode" of the video recorder is started. Then the problem arises that if the "recording" mode of the video recorder is started without first having checked whether the tuner of the video recorder has actually been tuned to the television program the user wishes to record and consequently supplies the desired television program signal, it may occur that the tuner of the video recorder has been tuned to another than the desired television program, in which case a television program which is not desired by the user is recorded. However, in order to enable such a check to be performed, the known video recorder requires an intricate operation, which is undesirable and inconvenient. For example, the tuner of the television receiver should first be set to the same station to which the video recorder has been tuned, after which the received television program can be monitored on the display screen of the television receiver. Moreover, the user often wishes to have a possibility to check, during recording of a television program signal corresponding to one television program and the simultaneous display of another television program on the screen of a television receiver, whether the television program signal corresponding to the desired television program is still being recorded by the video recorder or whether, for whatever reason, the desired television program has already ended or has been interrupted or the like. The known video recorder also requires an intricate operation, which is undesirable and inconvenient. Also in the case of, for example, a video recorder which has been set to a so-called stand-by mode, a user often wishes to have, a possibility of simply ascertaining to which station the tuner of the video recorder has been tuned. For this the known video recorder also requires an intricate operation, which is undesirable and inconvenient.